At least 53 people, including seven soldiers, have died in the Sikkim flash floods, with 27 more dead bodies found in the Teesta river bed in neighbouring West Bengal over the last three days. Seven of these bodies have been identified.
At least 19 people, including six soldiers, have died in the Sikkim flash floods, and 103 people, including 16 soldiers, remain missing. Over 3,000 tourists are stranded, 2,500 people have been evacuated and 6,000 have been moved to relief camp.
Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang =blamed "inferior construction" by the previous state government for the destruction of the Chungthang Dam - a 1200 MW hydroelectric project washed away in flash floods triggered by a glacial lake outburst.
NDTV has learnt that a Parliamentary Committee had red-flagged the "severe shortage of meteorological and monitoring stations in Himalayan regions", including Sikkim, where a flash flood killed 40 people and wrecked a massive dam.
A cloudburst in Sikkim triggered a massive flash flood on Wednesday leading to the Teesta river flowing at the danger mark as residents in low-lying areas were rescued. The swollen river waters also washed away parts of the Teesta Dam at Chungthang.